She blinked and tried to understand what he was saying. Her insides still felt like liquid, and she missed his warmth against her. She tried to move closer to regain what she missed, but he took another step back.

He pulled her hand to his lips, and after placing a quick kiss to her knuckles, he tightened his grip and gave her a tug back toward the dining hall.

She took a few steps. Then, still trying to process what he'd said, she put on her mental brakes. "What do you mean by a 'knack for persuading'?"

Chapter Fifteen

Lucas didn't answer. Instead he just tugged on her arm, and she let him pull her back inside the dining hall. But the more she thought about what he'd said, the more she wanted answers. For a minute back there, she'd felt almost drunk with ... passion. Did werewolves, like faes, have the ability to manipulate a girl's feelings so she would ... give him anything he wanted?

Kylie stared up at Lucas, who was holding her hand and leading her back to the place where they'd sat earlier. Mentally, she sorted through her emotions.

She wasn't angry at Lucas; she didn't even regret their slow dance in the moonlight. On the contrary, she'd loved every second of it. So, what was the problem?

A tiny internal voice answered the question. The problem was she didn't want to think that someone other than herself could persuade her to do something that she might not have done otherwise.

And yet, another little voice whispered, wasn't that what passion and seduction were about? All the magazines talked about how women wanted to be seduced. So was it a bad thing?

Okay, so she was confused. She looked at her hand where Lucas's fingers locked with hers and tugged her along. She followed him through a small crowd of campers to get their seats. Finally settled in their chairs again, she wondered when any of this was going to get any easier.

"You want something else to drink?" he asked, having to raise his voice for her to hear him over the music and the crowd of voices.

"I'm fine."

"Pizza?" he asked.

"Not now." She almost asked for an explanation about what he'd said earlier. Then she realized that the noise and the crowd would make having a lengthy and private conversation impossible. She glanced at Lucas and found him studying her, staring deep into her eyes-almost as if he were trying to read her thoughts.

He leaned in and rested his forehead against hers. "Are you upset with me?"

"No," she said honestly, and meant it. It wasn't anger she felt, just uncertainty, confusion. Because even if Lucas had the ability to seduce her to do certain things, he hadn't done it.

Blinking and offering him a smile, she decided tonight, at least at the party, might not be the time to talk about this. However, before she did any more moonlight dancing or make-out sessions by the creek, she needed answers.

She recalled Holiday's words weeks earlier when they were talking about boys and sex: What I'm asking is that when you decide to do something, that it's something you've thought about and decided to do. Not a spur-of-the-moment decision that you might regret later.

Did Holiday's words of wisdom have more meaning to them than Kylie had guessed?

* * *

An hour later, they'd indulged in pizza and drunk enough diet soda to drown an Italian fish. The number of couples dancing had dwindled; now, almost everyone was eating and mingling. Even the lights had been brightened. When people started stopping by to chat, Kylie had expected Lucas to disappear, but he hung in there and was even very friendly, which was so out of character for a werewolf. He was doing this for her, and she appreciated his effort.

Both Della and Miranda had stopped by and said hello as they got drinks and pizza. Kylie wanted to ask them if all "pact" things were going well, but she couldn't find a way to do it without being overheard, so she decided to wait until later to get an update.

As soon as the pizza disappeared, someone lowered the lights again and several couples started making their way back to the makeshift dance floor. As Kylie's vision adapted to the change of light, her eyes lit on Della being led to the dance floor by ... Chris.

Kylie immediately did a sweep of the room for Steve, and she was pretty sure he was the guy in the black T-shirt, standing in the shadowy corner talking to a couple of girls, one of whom was Fredericka. The other looked like ... Ellie.

Kylie's gaze moved around the room for one quick second, searching for a certain fae. She didn't find him and wondered if he hadn't come because he knew she'd be here.

I'm not thinking about Derek. She closed her eyes and repeated those words to herself as if they were her new mantra.

When she looked back up to find Della, Kylie spotted Miranda moving on the dance floor with Clark. Kylie didn't know Clark that well, except that he was a warlock and known to be a bit of a troublemaker.

What were Miranda and Della doing? What happened to their pact? Why weren't they going after the right guys?

"Something wrong?" Lucas asked.

She glanced over at him and realized she was frowning. "Not really. It's just..." She looked back at the crowd, stalling, trying to figure out how much she could tell him. Before she could come up with an appropriate answer, she spotted Perry. Perry, who looked angry enough to chew nails and spit out staples. His gaze met hers, and then he started walking to the door.

"Give me just a minute, please," she told Lucas, and shot up and took off after Perry.

By the time Kylie got outside, Perry was nowhere around. Then she saw him. Well, it had to be him. One of those big prehistoric-looking birds stood in front of the main office.